Cut and Shuffle
by brookemopolitan
Summary: 10 short drabbles inspired by my iTunes on shuffle. There's a little something for everyone in there. Love, angst, family, denial, and a tiny bit of gangster!Castle.


**So... I was bored, and chatting to RositaLG on Twitter about doing a shuffle challenge. With her encouragement, I took one on board. So, welcome to the crazy land that is my iTunes, and I'm pretty sure that there's something for everyone here. The rules for the challenge were as follows:**

**1. Pick a character, pairing, or fandom you like. **

**2. Turn on your music player and put it on random/shuffle.**

**3. Write a drabble related to each song that plays. You only have the time frame of the song to finish the drabble; you start when the song starts, and stop when it's over. No lingering afterward!**

**4. Do ten of these and then post them**

**I'm sure the Castle writers have far more important things to do than wear their snuggies backwards, pretending that they go to Hogwarts while writing drabbles.**

* * *

**1-Don't Do Sadness/Blue Wind- Spring Awakening Original Broadway Cast.**

Kate sat with her arms around Alexis. Nobody deserved this tragedy. It was just heartbreaking. Kate knew how to handle a crisis. She knew how to organise, how to do. What she didn't know how to do was sit, and help shoulder this silent grief. Alexis's tears were silent, but constant.

"I don't understand. How could we have not seen it coming?" Alexis whispered.

"Honey, stop. Don't go down that road." Kate warned soothingly. She ran a hand through Alexis's matted red hair. "You couldn't have known. And it isn't your fault. What your friend did was tragic, but don't you dare hang it as an albatross around your neck." Kate prayed she was saying the right thing. Alexis desperately needed a mother. Meredith, of course, was completely out of contact, and probably would have been useless anyway. Kate buried herself in memories of how her own mother used to hold her, and sooth away her sadness, and desperately tried to channel it.

"They want me to give the eulogy. They want me to talk about how beautiful she was, and how much we all loved her. But maybe, if we'd loved her enough, she wouldn't have left us like this." Alexis sobbed.

"Alexis, you loved her the best you could. And you will show that love for her by speaking at her funeral. Speak about her humour, and how she lit up the room with her smile." Kate soothed. It wasn't fair, and it wasn't right, but it fell to her. Alexis's best friend had taken her own life, and Kate had to be all that Alexis needed in the face of tragedy.

* * *

**2-Ur Love is My Drug- Ke$ha**

She couldn't keep going like this. A cup of coffee could not affect her like this. This didn't happen in the real world. It just didn't. You didn't just find another half that finished your thoughts, annoyed the ever-loving crap out of you and made you feel whole and safe. This only happened in books. No. Kate refused. This was not happening. She was not falling in love with Richard freaking Castle. She couldn't. She'd only end up heartbroken. A one and done girl and a guy who saw marriage as an exercise in if at first you don't succeed, try and try again would only ever end in disaster. Lanie was wrong. He didn't feel the same way. So if Kate went there, it would end in disaster. She looked into blue eyes and accepted the proffered coffee cup, Mona Lisa smile on her face.

* * *

**3-Slide- Goo Goo Dolls. **

He was on top of the world. She wanted him. After everything, all the years she'd put into finding justice, she was willing to shelve it all if it meant she couldn't have him. He was ecstatic. She was all never realised he needed. He would do anything and everything she wanted of him to make her even a tiny bit as happy as he was. He tightened his arms around her, and pressed a kiss to her head. She sighed quietly into his chest, and twisted her hand into his hair. He wanted to put a rock on her finger, but knew it was way too soon to be thinking those thoughts. He knew it had to at least seem like it was her idea. They had all the time in the world. He was hers, and she was his. Always.

* * *

**4-Pretty Fly for a White Guy- The Offspring.**

Kate was struggling to hold back her giggles. They were interviewing possible witnesses for what looked like a gang turf argument gone wrong. She was seriously concerned that Castle actually thought he was a gangster. She didn't have the heart to tell him that just because he'd used Google to figure out gang lingo, it didn't actually mean they'd take him seriously. But she was mildly concerned that he was going to say the wrong thing, and end up with a fat lip. Oh God. Now he was getting involved in some sort of secret handshake. That man. She bit her lip hard to stop herself from giggling out loud. He walked away with a confident swagger.

"Don't know why everyone's so scared of those guys." He said with a smirk. She shook her head.

"Did you even get anything useful out of them?" She asked with a bemused grin.

* * *

**5-Twilight and Shadow- The Lord of the Rings Return of the King Soundtrack.**

Kate Beckett was a Lord of the Rings nerd. Not a "oh, I've seen the movies once, and I managed not to fall asleep in them" marginally committed fan, but a "let's watch all three extended versions of the films in one sitting" hardcore, shaking, screaming fangirl.

She could quote the Elvish in the films flawlessly. They were part of the way through the extended edition of the third movie, and Kate had been teary from probably the first fifteen minutes. Castle had let out a small giggle at the way Kate had sobbed when Frodo had sent Sam away.

"Say something, I dare you." Had been her growled threat. That coupled with an elbow to the ribs had been enough to shut him up.

As much as Castle liked the movies, watching Kate watch them was far more interesting. She held back sobs as Arwen saw her future, cheered when Eowyn slayed the Witch King, and sighed with barely contained joy when Sam returned home to his baby girl.

"Never would have picked you for a Tolkien fangirl." Castle teased.

* * *

**6-Thriller- Michael Jackson**

Zombies. Actual friggen zombies. Coolest case EVER. Castle was eternally grateful that he'd picked up the phone for Beckett's call. Cooler still was that they needed him to dress up in order to get their man. He fidgeted as Kate applied the zombie makeup with a careful hand.

"Sit still!" She admonished him.

"I can't. This is going to be the best thing ever." He whimpered, wiggling like a kid waiting for to open presents on Christmas day. Kate rolled her eyes as she capped the makeup.

"Of course you'd think this is awesome. You couldn't write something this and get away with it." She joked. Castle shrugged.

"_Undead Heat._ I don't know. I can make it happen." He joked. Kate pushed lightly against his chest.

"Go. Get the guy." She told him gently, a half smile on his face.

He'd thought that getting to be a zombie vigilante was the coolest possible thing that could happen on this case. Not even close. The coolest, most awesome thing about this case was that Kate had told him that the infamous wall, the wall that had kept her just out of his reach, was almost gone. Nothing could be better than that. Nothing. His heart swelled at the thought that she could very soon be in his arms. He'd gotten this close; he couldn't give up now. Now he had to bide his time. Speaking of biding his time… he gripped his laser tag gun tightly, waiting for his daughter to walk through the door, unsuspecting of her impending doom…

* * *

**7-Speechless- Lady Gaga**

That man. She didn't know how he did it. Every. Single. Time. He found his way in. Her walls were high, and well defended, but he took every single one of her defence mechanisms in his stride. He swam through moats, and jumped over crocodiles. He took flaming arrows, and managed to burrow his way through the keep. He had breached her last defence, and now the only thing she wanted was him. Nothing else was important.

She hoped it wasn't too late. She hoped she hadn't pushed too hard this time. She knew who she was. She knew she was a disaster, and she knew she was a hell of a lot of work. She knew she'd treated him like crap, and she'd made him think that his love was less than everything to her. All she could do was hope that he'd forgive her one last time. She could only hope that her steps away from the case would show him that she was in it. She hoped that turning in her badge and gun proved that she wasn't just looking for mindless comfort. She was willing to change everything in her life to have him. When it came down to it, he was all she needed.

* * *

**8-Hello- Evanescence**

Kate stood at the tombstone. She bit her lip and forced her shudders down. For several moments she forced herself to focus on simply breathing in and out.

"I did it." She whispered. She flopped to her knees, and traced the letters etched onto the headstone. Vincit Omnia Veritas. Truth Conquers All.

"I'm a cop, Momma. I'm going to find them. I'm going to find the bastards that did this to you. I'm going to find them, and I'm going to make them pay." She promised, pressing her hand against the dates etched onto the marble.

"It's not fair. They stole you, and I'll never get you back. You missed my graduation. I was one of ten girls in my class. I got so much hazing, but I didn't care. I kicked all those guys asses." She recalled.

"I kicked all their asses because I have something to fight for. I won't rest until I have justice for you." Kate swore; her hand curled around the ring that was always around her neck.

* * *

**9-Thinking of You- Katy Perry**

Kate struggled to sit up. She hated this. She hated the bastard that did this to her. She was tired of having to have someone pour her coffee. She hated that she couldn't get out of bed on her own in the morning. And she hated that even though she had someone, and a good someone at that, helping her through the experience, it wasn't the person she wanted. God, she missed him. He would have fought through the cloying seriousness that had settled in her dad's cabin like a cloud, and he would have made her smile. He would have made up stories about the squirrels that annoyed her with their scratching at the window, and it would have been no big deal for him to get her coffee, because he always did it, and he knew how she took it without asking.

She felt so cruel. Josh had turned down a trip to Cambodia to help her through her recovery (insisting that he knew how to help her best because he was a cardiac surgeon), and she hated him for it. She hated that she just couldn't love him. No matter how good he was, (and he _was _a good man) he wasn't just wasn't Castle.

"Josh." She called out. "Josh, we need to talk."

* * *

**10- Valerie- Amy Winehouse.**

He stood on the back terrace, observing the scene. The open skyline was a relief, and the quiet, the blessed quiet was perfect. It was exactly what they needed.

"This place is amazing." Kate said quietly. She came up beside him, and leaned into his side. Castle immediately slung an arm around her. He loved that he could do this. Touch her. Kiss her. Call her beautiful. Take her to his house in the Hamptons.

"I barely noticed. Not with the company." He teased, pressing a kiss against the bridge of her nose.

"We wasted so much time. I'm so…" Kate began. He silenced her with another kiss.

"Don't. Don't give us a post mortem before we've even begun. We took our time, and yeah, we were both idiots, but I don't care. We're here. We did it." She shot him a brilliant grin.

"Race you to the water." She challenged, before taking off at breakneck speed.


End file.
